Court won't hear Padilla appeal

The Supreme Court won't reinstate a lawsuit against former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and other government officials for the imprisonment of a man declared an "enemy combatant."

The high court on Monday refused to hear an appeal from Jose Padilla and his mother, Estela Lebron.

Padilla wanted to sue former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, current Defense Secretary Leon Panetta, former brig commander Catherine T. Hanft and several other officials. But the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in January that Congress, not the court system, has jurisdiction over military detention cases.

Padilla was eventually convicted of supporting terrorism in Kosovo, Bosnia and Chechnya and is serving a 17-year sentence in a federal prison in Colorado.